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The Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS.edu) is the largest public policy Ph.D. program in the nation and the only program based at an independent public policy research organization—the RAND Corporation.

John D. Graham Appointed Dean of Pardee RAND Graduate School

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John D. Graham, a senior official in the White House Office of Management and Budget and a former Harvard University professor, was appointed today as dean of the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS).

RAND Corporation President and CEO James A. Thomson announced the appointment and said Graham will assume his new position March 1 as head of the school, which has awarded more doctorates in policy analysis than any institution in the world. He will also conduct research as the holder of a newly created chair in policy analysis at RAND.

PRGS was founded in 1970 as one of America's original eight graduate programs in public policy and the only one based at a think tank. The interdisciplinary doctorate in policy analysis offered by the school is designed to train creative thinkers to play important roles in solving major problems facing the world. Rigorous courses all operate as seminars, and students get the opportunity to work alongside top RAND researchers on a broad range of projects as part of their on-the-job training.

“John Graham comes to RAND with an outstanding track record of achievements in teaching, research, research management and government service,” Thomson said. “Students at the Pardee RAND Graduate School will learn a great deal and benefit enormously by having an experienced senior policy analyst of John's caliber heading their school.”

Since July 2001, Graham has served President Bush as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. The office of 50 career policy analysts oversees the regulatory activities of the federal government.

Graham served on the Harvard faculty from 1985 until taking his current federal position. He has taught physicians and graduate students at the Harvard School of Public Health and from 1990 to 2001 led the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, which he founded. Graham raised more than $10 million in project grants and philanthropic contributions at the center, which won international recognition for analytic contributions to environmental protection, injury prevention and medical technology innovation.

“I'm delighted to join RAND, which has a well-deserved reputation for producing some of the best policy analysis in the world,” Graham said. “I look forward to helping students at the Pardee RAND Graduate School become some of the leading policy analysts of the future, as they learn their craft by working closely with RAND's outstanding research staff in seminars and to produce reports on the most challenging issues of our times.”

Graham is the author or co-author of nearly 200 books, articles, and reports on a broad array of issues related to risk estimation and management in such policy areas as health, safety, environment and energy.

The Pardee RAND Graduate School — located at RAND headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif. — has awarded 181 doctorates in policy analysis since it was founded. Enrollment has expanded over the years and currently stands at 107 students. Most students arrive after having already earned master's or doctorate degrees.

All PRGS students receive fellowships that pay for all tuition costs and health care, and a stipend based on the work they perform on RAND research projects. Past graduates of PRGS have gone on to careers in government, business, non-profit institutions and academia.

The school was known as the RAND Graduate Institute from 1970 until 1987, when it became the RAND Graduate School. It was renamed the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School in 2004 to honor former RAND analyst Frederick S. Pardee, who donated a record $10 million to the school. The gift was the largest ever made by an individual to RAND and one of the largest gifts ever by an individual to a single Ph.D. program in the United States.

Graham is the third dean of the graduate school. He succeeds Robert Klitgaard, who left in May to become president of Claremont Graduate University. Rae Archibald has been serving as interim dean.

Graham was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa., and earned his B.A. in politics and economics at Wake Forest University in 1978. He earned his M.A. in public policy at Duke University in 1980, and his Ph.D. in Urban and Public Affairs from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1983.

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